


Intermission

by helloshepard



Category: Transformers - All Media Types, Transformers: Prime
Genre: Gen, Not Beta Read
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-23
Updated: 2015-06-23
Packaged: 2018-04-05 19:57:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 708
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4192950
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/helloshepard/pseuds/helloshepard
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Unlike what some might have thought, the creation and maintenance of Darkmount, Nevada, USA, did not bring about an endless grey sky and never-ending bad weather. Three days after Starscream declared unofficial victory, Soundwave requested an exactly one-point five hour scouting patrol, and approved it himself.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Intermission

Unlike what some might have thought, the creation and maintenance of Darkmount, Nevada, USA, did not bring about an endless grey sky and never-ending bad weather.

Three days after Starscream declared unofficial victory, Soundwave requested an exactly one-point five hour scouting patrol, and approved it himself.

The mission, Soundwave surmised, taking stock of the white clouds dotted against the pale blue sky, was of importance.

With a calm that belied his quiet anxiety, Soundwave requested Laserbeak detach. The minicon responded gleefully—Laserbeak did not enjoy being cooped up on the ship any more than necessary, and unfortunately, recent events deemed it _necessary._

Laserbeak swooped down, neatly avoiding a flock of avians and glided in midair, allowing the wind to carry the Decepticon whichever way it would.

Pleased, Soundwave jumped, transforming in midair and zooming over the desert. Laserbeak followed, chittering happily.

For a brief moment, anxiety gave way to relief as Soundwave noted Laserbeak seemed to be suffering no latent ill effects from the encounter with Wheeljack and Ratchet. Knock Out had repaired the damage to Laserbeak’s sensor with near-perfect accuracy, supervised by Soundwave himself.

It was the possibility of undetected damage to Laserbeak’s processors that made Soundwave wary.  No matter how many synchronizations and talks they had, there were some things that just couldn’t be fixed.

But Laserbeak appeared fine, and relayed to Soundwave this was much, _much_ better than staying on the ship all day every day, and couldn’t they do this more often, even though Laserbeak understood Soundwave _couldn_ _’_ _t_ but they’d won, so…

Soundwave responded to Laserbeak’s excitable musings with a neutral _we_ _’_ _ll see._

A cloud formation several miles to the west seemed to be the perfect spot to test their flying abilities without basic sight—much better than the Wrecker and the Autobot ever could, Laserbeak jeered, but both knew that once they arrived the clouds would be little bigger than the (relatively) small clots of condensed water that hung in the air where they flew.

Letting Laserbeak take the lead, Soundwave slowed and scanned their surroundings. Ahead was a canyon, just wide enough for him to fly through without having to turn.

Soundwave dove. The drop was negligible for a Cybertronian, but Soundwave suspected any human would have become violently ill.

Laserbeak followed.

Without looking back, Soundwave glided through the canyon, avoiding a large outcropping of rocks and trees. Laserbeak was still following, albeit at a slightly slower pace than before. Their bond was quiet, as it was apt to be, but Soundwave could sense no fear or undue anxieties.

Perhaps Soundwave’s own anxieties had been unwarranted.

Laserbeak chirped once and zoomed ahead, indicating a flight path directly through the misleading clouds. Ambivalent, Soundwave followed, pulling up out of the canyon to follow the deployer as Laserbeak sped towards their mutual destination.

Soundwave was pleasantly surprised to find he had misjudged the group of clouds. They were larger—much larger—than he expected, and he flew through them without a second thought, absently disregarding the small pellets of water and ice beating against his plating. Beside him, Laserbeak was chittering, happily looping through the clouds and into the open sky.

The larger Decepticon pulled up, up past the cloud and until he could easily see the smaller stars in this sector of the galaxy. Still in the cloud, Laserbeak waited.

Soundwave transformed.

It was an exercise they had done hundreds, if not thousands, of times. Soundwave fell, and Laserbeak flew.

The comforting _click_ of the deployer reattaching to his chest was Soundwave’s cue to transform back into his altmode. He took his time heading back to the ground. Normally, this exercise dictated they speed to the drop point and Laserbeak redeploy, but as Soundwave and Laserbeak both knew, today was different.

He transformed again just a few meters from the ground, letting his legs and back take the brunt of the impact. Laserbeak detached, swooping upwards then gliding down to perch on Soundwave’s thin arm.

Chirping, Laserbeak extended a feeler to prod Soundwave’s neck, impatiently explaining the result of this patrol-slash-test meant the deployer was cleared to fly, one hundred percent, with absolutely minimal (or no) supervision and that it was time to go and fly—again!

Soundwave had to agree.

**Author's Note:**

> Ficlet for a tumblr anon. From May. :|  
> Just...ignore that One Scene at the gas station, okay?


End file.
